political parties

House Tales.

Written By: Bill - Date published: 3:01 pm, March 22nd, 2016 - 32 comments

If ‘home is where the heart is’ then what’s the story when everything’s heartless?

Teapot tapes – Key backs down over Parliamentary Services payment

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 2:08 pm, March 22nd, 2016 - 66 comments

John Key’s office has announced that he will now pay the agreed damages from private sources.

Exclusive: Tea Pot Tapes released

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:40 pm, March 21st, 2016 - 27 comments

Now that the Key tea pot tapes defamation case has been settled and John Key has accepted that Bradley Ambrose accidentally recorded the content of Key’s discussion with John Banks the original tape can now be released …

Here we go again – from leaky homes to porous pipes

Written By: Simon Louisson - Date published: 12:32 pm, March 21st, 2016 - 24 comments

As if leaky buildings was not enough, New Zealand’s lax standards and lack of inspection may be contributing to new problems in the Building Industry.

Can We Trust Winston Peters?

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 11:03 am, March 20th, 2016 - 139 comments

Recent polling makes it clear that neither National or Labour can win power without the support of NZ First. So should the left be worried that Winston Peters will take his party back over to the blue team?

Guest Post: Government’s multi billion dollar lies

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 7:44 am, March 20th, 2016 - 39 comments

Amakiwi analyses why foreign corporations are hurting New Zealand’s economy and questions why they should be allowed the estimate their profitability.

National tricky on climate change aid

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:27 am, March 19th, 2016 - 10 comments

TVOne has discovered that National’s preposed climate change aid spend announced at COP21 would result in a reduction in the amount spent compared to previous years.

Preliminary RM results: NZF jumps to 9%

Written By: Colonial Viper - Date published: 7:33 pm, March 18th, 2016 - 290 comments

New Zealand First rises 3% to 9% in the latest RM, for their best RM result in the last year or two.

National admits the ETS is broken

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:04 am, March 18th, 2016 - 12 comments

Paula Bennett has conceded that the Emissions Trading Scheme is not working and that the two for one scheme which halves the cost of carbon credits for major polluters will be phased out. But when?

Fear is a Man’s Best Friend

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 4:05 pm, March 17th, 2016 - 141 comments

It’s been an intense day or two for Andrew Little. But he’s still feeling better than John Key. Why? Because Key’s got the fear.

Andrew Little on the farming crisis

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 8:30 am, March 17th, 2016 - 44 comments

Andrew Little’s speech in Parliament yesterday on the dairy crisis.

The “jihadi brides” lie

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 7:02 am, March 17th, 2016 - 74 comments

Remember the “jihadi brides” – part of last year’s beat-up about the risk of terrorism in NZ? Yesterday the central lie in the story was revealed.

Key fiddles while dairy industry burns

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 9:27 am, March 16th, 2016 - 46 comments

The dairy crisis is escalating with a further drop in prices occurring overnight. And John Key has chosen to defend the Government’s handling of the crisis by attacking Andrew Little. He would be better off explaining what his Government is doing to address what is becoming a crisis.

Safe As Milk

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 1:44 pm, March 14th, 2016 - 110 comments

Labour is calling for an urgent summit of the dairy industry players to avoid the looming bankruptcy of one in ten farmers. National’s response? Crisis, what crisis?

Labour considering Unconditional Basic Income

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:43 pm, March 14th, 2016 - 361 comments

As with capital gains tax, the political left is kicking off a very important discussion for NZ.

Could National lose Whangarei?

Written By: Colonial Viper - Date published: 11:32 am, March 14th, 2016 - 43 comments

National are nervous about losing the safe electorate seat of Whangarei. Something tells me that the NATs will be fighting back hard come 2017.

Go, technology, inequality, the future of work

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 12:05 pm, March 13th, 2016 - 42 comments

Miscellaneous Sunday morning meanderings on technology, inequality and the future of work.

Wee Todd Barclay may have a wee problem

Written By: mickysavage - Date published: 8:47 am, March 12th, 2016 - 63 comments

Clutha Southland National MP’s employee dispute has escalated with a police inquiry into the possible secret recording of a staff member being conducted.

The Gun Club

Written By: te reo putake - Date published: 2:34 pm, March 11th, 2016 - 172 comments

In the wake of the shooting of four police officers in Kawerau, it’s time NZ had a cold, hard look at our gun culture. We need an inquiry that addresses both legal and illegal gun ownership. But there’s a related matter that also needs looking at …

Iain Lees-Galloway on the end of zero hour contracts

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 9:00 am, March 11th, 2016 - 37 comments

Iain Lees-Galloway’s speech celebrating the end of zero hour contracts with a special thanks to the Unite Union, the Council of Trade Unions, the Greens and New Zealand First, Marama Fox, even Peter Dunne, and even Michael Woodhouse.

Nats think “pretty legal” is good enough…

Written By: Natwatch - Date published: 7:47 am, March 10th, 2016 - 24 comments

… but the courts may beg to differ.

Health Ministry lost the plot and heads should roll

Written By: Anthony R0bins - Date published: 9:34 am, March 9th, 2016 - 23 comments

The Health Ministry committed to spending $18m that they didn’t have on upgrading their own offices, and tried to claw the money back from the underfunded DHBs trying to deliver health care to NZ. And that seems to be just fine with Minister Coleman.

Fonterra faces liquidity issues as rivers of “white oil” dry up

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 5:47 pm, March 8th, 2016 - 141 comments

Pundits, most residing in the National Party, just three years ago predicted the economy would surf high on “rivers of white oil” flowing from the dairy industry, but they now have cow pats splattered on their faces as Fonterra today announced another payout downgrade and signalled liquidity pressures.